Okay, I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again – money is the root of all evil. At the least, it’s a big pain in the butt. Check this out…I’ve received my tax assessment from my German accountant and it appears that I still owe close to €1000.00 on my 2006 taxes. That’s not too much of a surprise; unfortunately I have no way to make this payment. I am paying a German accountant to basically handle my German finances although I am beginning to wonder why I am paying her. I guess the money was to get the taxes filed correctly as I would never be able to figure out the German tax forms; although I guess that’s where the service ends. I’ve made several inquisitions as to how I could make this payment now that I have returned back to the states and the only advice received has been useless.
The standard routine for making this tax payment is to transfer from a German bank account. Unfortunately for me, I had closed my Dresdner account just prior to leaving the country and therefore have no German bank account to make this payment. I figured this wouldn’t be an issue – how could sending money for a payment be complicated? I mean, as far as I’m concerned, if anyone wants to send me money I’m positive that I would make it simple for them. The Germans, on the other hand, must think a bit differently. A simple process is anything but what I have experienced … oh, and by the way, my taxes still aren’t paid. It’s not that I didn’t try; I just have not discovered the secret to getting this transfer completed. The due date is next Tuesday and I’m about 95% sure that this cluster-fuck won’t be resolved before that due date is long gone…
Now, to add to the confusion, I’m currently spending some time with my parents in Michigan. The added issue that this causes is that Wells Fargo has a total of zero branches in Michigan and, since a branch visit is required to complete an international wire transfer with Wells Fargo, a three hour drive to Angola, Indiana was required to even attempt this payment. I attempted several other payment techniques (a transfer from my American Express, Money Gram, Western Union, etc…) but got absolutely nowhere. As a last ditch effort, my father and I decided to drive the three hours to the closest Wells Fargo branch today. Surely the bank would be able to make this transfer, right? WRONG!
I guess the official tax documentation that I received from Germany didn’t have the correct information on it to make an international wire transfer possible. Or, more true to the point, the “Lead Teller” at Wells Fargo wasn’t able to use the information provided to get the payment made. I guess an IBAN number, a BIC (which looks to me like a SWIFT code) and two account numbers with separate BLZ numbers for each wasn’t sufficient. What all those numbers and codes are is unknown to me; but I am not a banker – I would think that a “Lead Teller” for Wells Fargo would be able to figure out how to get the payment made; but I would be thinking incorrectly as Deborah was unable to figure it out. Bottom line here is that, even after a six-hour round trip to Indiana, my German taxes are still not paid.
Not only that, but I also took the remaining €4400 with me to deposit. They were more than happy to deposit this money into my account at a buying rate of 1.2648. After checking the foreign exchange rates for today, I now completely understand why there was no problem with this – the exchange rate of USD to EUR is currently at 1.358. I lost over $400 by depositing the money into my account! I personally think that it’s a bit unfair to lose over $400 by depositing MY money into MY account but I guess that Wells Fargo must really need the help or something. Why else would they so blatantly screw one of their own customers?
Oh well, I guess that’s just America these days – banks that aren’t even able to correctly do a transfer to pay due foreign taxes but are more than happy to screw their own customers on a simple deposit of funds that happen to be in a foreign currency. It’s fucking pathetic…
bis später,
Coriolis
